Cartography in Studying the Environment: Bilingual Practice Aiming at the Inclusion of Deaf Pupils - Maps for the Future Children Education and Internet - page 274

would be asked to design their own puzzles with their own drawing and then be
exchanged between them. After the pupils managed to form the puzzle, they were
asked to locate the elements such as cars, buildings, factories, trash, etc.
The next step of this activity was a sequence of pictures, which sought to portray
“from the natural environment to urban problems”, presenting situations such as the
construction of the first railroad tracks, the industrialization of the cities, the
verticalization, the queues for jobs, socio-spatial segregation, visual pollution of
cities and others. In all images shown, the subtitles were included in Portuguese and
sign language. Ending this practice, it was proposed that the pupils would draw
what drew more attention to them. Some pupils drew some garbage in cities,
buildings, others drew up the slums. Interestingly, one pupil chose to draw a rural
landscape, arguing that it would be difficult work for him, because there were many
different urban elements. This showed that some situations can indicate misunder-
standing, which may actually be revealing. With this practice, it was clear how the
language is fundamental in the organization of thoughts: those who had a more
structured language had an easier way to understand the subject matter and then
represent it.
Regarding the designs produced by pupils, it was noted that at first (Fig. 22.2 ) the
pupil was concerned with the aspects of designing an urban landscape, a building
and a vehicle, undeniable “symbols” of cities. In this second design (Fig. 22.3 ), it is
very interesting to note that the pupil took care to show her mastery of Portuguese in
the written form when writing garbage in the trash, where a kid throws a package.
We also noted the contrasted ideas of two different situations: a guy throwing the

Fig. 22.2 The design of the building and truck